#1864, Thursday, June 1: Rooter's Blues'n'Bar-B-Q debuts

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Post 1864, Day 152 of 2017
- 2,344 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

At Rooters: Diana Jacobs isn't someone I met at Rooters, but she is a friend and multi-instrument band leader I've worked with. Here, she just jumped in and was, typically, awesome! 

I arrived in Syracuse pretty music-less. I had stopped all my music playing activities, and sold most of my stereo, months before the move. When the move came, I left my entire record collection and record-playing system behind.

But I did bring my basses and a small but favorite amp.

The first thing I heard about the music scene was from Tom Townsley's local public radio Sunday blues show, which I sometimes heard if I was out driving in the evening. At 9 o'clock, he would announce, "Right about now, the blues jam at Rooters is getting started." Then, before he ended the show, he'd usually say, "I'm heading over to the blues jam at Rooters now, see you next week!".

It took about six months for me to feel comfortable enough in my skin and my situation to venture forth into an unknown part of Syracuse to check out the scene at Rooters. I went with little anticipation - I didn't expect to play, not knowing any other players and not having any idea about fronting a set. I just wanted to see what it was, maybe meet some locals (very few of my coworkers were native Syracusans).

The welcome I got set the stage for the rest of my life in Syracuse (so far). So Rooters has a special place in my heart. Beginning that very night, I met people who were happy to recommend other places to play, other jams, and that directly led to my current, very positive situation, based on playing music.

When Rooters announced a new Thursday blues jam and barbecue, I was excited. It happened tonight. The band was great, the barbecue was excellent. The turnout was a little light, but that gave me more time to play, and with a couple of folks I played with that very first night (unfortunately, not in the pictures).

Dugan Henhawk, sax player par excellence, here singing; Bobby Brown, one of my favorite drummers, and former bandmate, and Mike Petroff, great harp player, former bandmate and current friend, jamming at Rooters Lounge.

Mettis Jacobs (Diana's husband) on guitar along with Diana and Bobby - I was so happy to be asked to play bass on their set.

I got three new bookings right before I left to go out for the jam - two directly from someone I first met at Rooters - but I was more excited about the new jam. I am beside myself with gratitude for this arc of my life.

Food and Diet

Today's Weight:                      206.2 lbs.

Previous Weight (5/31/17):           206.2 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       + 0.0 lbs.

Diet Comment

I went out and did it again: bad planning (being hungry while out playing, thus, buying dinner in a bar, where there was no possibility of eating on-plan) led to no weight loss. Third day in a row at this weight, up six pounds from last Friday. Sigh. Saddest thing is, I'm planning on eating barbecue again tonight (I've actually been planning tonight for over a month - it's the first night of Blues n Bar-B-Q at my original Syracuse open mic home, Rooters Lounge)!

Food Log

Breakfast
4:45pm: Green and blue protein smoothie with coconut-almond milk, kefir, large organic egg, chia gel, kale, spinach, blueberries, whey powder (36g protein), hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), raw organic cacao powder, moringa leaf powder, cinnamon, turmeric, coconut oil and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
9:30pm: At Rooters: Pulled pork with barbecue sauce and barbecue baked beans.

Dinner
12:50am: A quart of 'Bittersweet Sinphony' ice cream. (Death by ice cream, weight-loss suicide, lol).

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 24 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 60+ oz. 

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